Since the popularization of golf, the working men and women who became fond of it and who because of their jobs are restricted to playing only on weekends and holidays and who in the large part have learned the proper swing from books and magazine articles, have a need for a means which will allow them to practice driving golf balls when and where the time becomes available. The game of golf, which on the one hand readily lends itself to restricted area practice in its putting phase, almost totally defies solution in its driving phase which requires that the practicing player hit the ball as hard and true as possible. Once hit, the careening ball becomes lethal in confined spaces and must be quickly and efficiently restrained. The prior art has produced many devices which attempt to safely and efficiently solve the problem of practicing driving golf balls in confined areas. The inventor of the present invention tried the various available devices of prior art such as nets, plastic balls, tethered balls, swing devices, etc., and found that they were unsatisfactory in all cases in that they lacked required features such as natural ball contact, portability, safety, rapid ball retrieval, confined area usage, easy set up and disassembly and that specifically and in general even the most effective possessed poor functionality.
The present invention provides a golf or other ball driving practice device that solves the aforementioned problems of the present art and effectively provides a practice device for ball driving or hitting practice that can be used in any confined area that provides enough room to swing freely plus a few extra feet in which to set up the device. The device is light, easily erected, readily portable, offers natural ball contact and rapid ball retrieval. It is extremely safe in that it not only positively stops the flight of a driven ball but also catches a properly driven ball and holds it until the person retrieves it.